VICE: There is so much violence and intolerance in this world. Why did you start this projectin Afghanistan?Oliver Percovich: Exactly because there is so much violence and intolerance in this world. If everyonerode a skateboard the world would be a much better place.

Wouldn’t there be more (good) feedback from western countries whereskateboarding is already popular?No, over the last 28 years of skateboarding I have never come across muchacceptance of skateboarding as in Afghanistan. We have never been asked to leaveany skate spots in public places ever. Police, soldiers and public officials all just wantto have a go on the skateboard rather than telling us we can’t skate. That is a newexperience for me. Western countries are largely intolerant of skateboarders andskateboarding. We have been forced to Afghanistan, where they know how to treatskateboarders with respect.

It kind of seems to me like „forced blessings“. Because in western countriesskateboarding is definitly a cool thing to do, so would you like it to be that cool also inthe Middle East countries? Firstly, Afghanistan is not in the Middle East, it is inCentral Asia. Secondly, the girls that skate here are already cooler than any girlsanywhere else. They aren’t spoilt and they appreciate the opportunity to show theboys that they can do sport just as well. It wasnt’t forced on them. We showed themskateboards and they took like ducks to water. They slam just as hard as the boysand get straight back up again. There is one girl Fatana (10) who is especially tough.She comes from Kandahah.

Why skateboarding and not playing football, gymnastics or whatever? And why nottraditional afghan games?Because it is new, it is interesting for the kids. There areno girls playing any other sports in public places. Females aren’t allowed to ridebicycles, climb fences or play football. Skateboarding is seen as a sport that bothsexes can do. We have managed to do that because they haven’t seen it before andthere are no predudices. The community sees that the girls like doing it and no onehas stopped us yet. Skateboarding is also more fun than football or gymnastics.

The US-Americans didn’t really brought many good things to the afghan people, canyou feel now a bit of defense toward western people or western activities?Skateboarding is a global sport. It is not a western sport anymore. We have contactwith skateboarders in Malaysia, an Islamic country, that have been skating for over10 years. The world champ a few years back comes originally from Congo. There areheaps of skaters from South America that rip. There are 13 million skateboardersworldwide and they don’t all come from the US. Skateboarding is less than 50 yearsold and evolved simultaneously in the US, Europe and Australia. I think it has shakenoff it’s American identity when you start to see skate videos from Uganda, Lebanon,Malaysia and Dubai.

Did something like the skateboard actually exist in Afghanisatan or are yousomething like pioniers now?No there weren’t any kids skating in the streets when I got here. I have met someAfghans that had skateboards here in the 80’s but they mostly skated in their homes.

Are you actually admired to bring such a piece of sports equipment to the afghanpeople?Yes, most people here think it is a fantastic idea and are impressed by the fact thatwe get females to do sport, especially in a public space. Afghans also admire the factthat a foreigner is a volunteer in their country and is doing a project to put a smile onAfghan kids faces. A lot of foreigners are here to make stacks of money from all thedevelopment dollars or to further their careers and the local population know it.

Who is actually financing the whole thing? When I think of Afghanistan I think ofthose cliches huge poppy fields and warlords, you don’t have anything to do withthat, do you?We have nothing to do with heroin trafficking or warlords. We leave those sort ofpeople to the other foreign organisations to get involved with. We just are involvedwith kids and other good people.We rely on supporters to donate to the project. If you are living in Germany please godown to your local Titus skateshop and donate your old skateboard. They arecollecting second hand skateboard equipment for us until the 30th of November.Titus will then send over the equipment to us here in Kabul via DHL. We also have abank account in Germany where donations can be made. All details are on ourwebsite http://skateistan.org. Check it out y’all.

Afghanistan is known as a very muslim country, are there girls taking part in yourproject. How can I imagine that? Are they hidden behind huge burkas? Are therefemale trainees?Yes, half of the skateboarders are female and no they don’t wear burkas because itwould be very difficult to skate in. They don’t even wear head scarfs. This is possiblebecause they are between the ages of 4 and 12. We will bulid an indoor premises sothat females over 12 can learn to skate with female instructors. If you are a femalethat skates, please consider coming over to Kabul and volunteering with Skateistanfor a month so we can also teach Afghan female teenagers.